Contains an introduction and afterword by M.B. Stern and four stories by L.M. Alcott: Behind a mask; or, A woman's power, The abbot's ghost; or Maurice Treherne's temptation, Pauline's passion and punishment, and The mysterious key and what it opened. The first two of these were published under the pseud. of A.M. Bernard.

One of America's most adored juvenile fiction writers, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) also penned anonymous and pseudonymous sensation stories for popular magazines. Her spellbinding tales of intrigue and suspense, violence and evil, jealousy and revenge, were uncovered by the detective work of Madeleine Stern and others, who scrutinized published and unpublished sources for clues to Alcott's secret literary life. Now Alcott's known thrillers are available...

From her eleventh year to the month of her death at age fifty-five, Louisa May Alcott kept copious journals. She never intended for them to be published, but the insights they provide into her remarkable life are invaluable. -- back cover.